Electronic Shutter

Does anyone know if there is an electronic shutter on the horizon for SLR-type cameas? It would seem, to me at least, long-range telephoto would be made a whole lot easier. Mirror up with my D300 still brings shutter movement at 1600 mm. I know, rock solid tripod but how about the shutter option.

I don't know if it's on the horizon, but it's a brilliant idea that has lots of merit. Can you imagine how quiet a DSLR could be without the mirror flop? Just like on pocket cameras.

Well now that Live View has become common, and manufacturers (and their customers) are starting to get over that, EVF or LCD only SLRs are probably on the horizon. In fact, the new Olympus/Panasonic Micro Four Thirds (u4/3) specification is going to be used to make this very type of camera. The main difference with u4/3 from regular 4/3 is that the lens mount is smaller, closer to the sensor, and has extra contacts. It's actually too close to the sensor to allow for a mirror. So you get a four-thirds sensor, EVF/LCD only, no mirror, silent operation, and very small interchangable lenses.

I can't wait myself. Here's a translated conversation with Ogawa Haruo, head of Olympus' DSLR division. It's from DPReview forums, so there's a chance it's faked, but I really think it's legit, since it doesn't make any bold or shocking claims.

I'm a little behind the curve here on pondering the future without mirrors, but how does a person use a telephoto lens on moving animals/birds relying only on the live view LCD on the camera back?

Well Steve - First, I don't see why that would necessarily be a big problem. Second, you could still have a viewfinder potentially without a mirror. In fact, most all the "superzoom" cameras, like my S2 IS, have an LCD viewfinder. People tend to hate them because they are lowish resolution, and sometimes slow refresh rate, but I would think that those two things are getting better every day.

What about an optical viewfinder makes it easier to track animals? I would think the biggest problem with purely an LCD would be the position of your arms, and a lack of stability/smoothness without any viewfinder at all. And these would be the fixed in the same way with an EVF finder as with an optical finder. (And you could do crazy things like have a detachable EVF finder for times you do or don't want one.)

Sorry for the double post, but I just thought of an example. I was shooting waterskiers from the tow boat alternately with my S2 IS (432 mm equiv.) and my friends D80 with 70-300 (450 mm equiv.). Thinking back on it, I don't recall ever feeling it was tougher to follow the skiers, or keep then in the viewfinder when using one over the other. Maybe if you're used to one of the huge promodel finders, it can be disconcerting to look through a smaller finder; But most lower end DSLR's have very small finders - so it's not a matter of it being an EVF.

Now focus was much faster and seemed more accurate on the D80, which I think is the biggest drawback of not having a mirror. There's no splitting of the light beam off to a separate module for phase detect focus. But if contrast auto focus continues to improve, it can approach the speed and accuracy of current systems.

Thanks, David. I understand a bit better now.